California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176
JOHN B. NEWPORT, president of the Farmers and Merchants Bank, of Hanford, Kings county,
has been a resident of California since 1874, and for a number of years has been intimately
identified with the most important upbuilding forces of the county in which he resides. He was
born in Warren county, Ohio, July 28, 1852, a son of Joseph C. and Elizabeth (Montgomery)
Newport. His paternal great-grandfather, David Newport, a native of Scotland, immigrated to
America in young manhood, locating in Pennsylvania, where he resided for many years. During
the early years of the colonization of the Western Reserve, now the state of Ohio, he erected a
cabin in sections, and started overland, with teams and wagons, for the then new and wild
country. After a long and tedious journey he arrived in what is now Warren county, Ohio,
where he found a heavily timbered country, with Indian trails as the only roads, and almost
complete isolation from the rest of the white settlers. Setting up his primitive cabin, he cleared
some land, sowed grain and planted such crops as he deemed essential to the maintenance of
life, and then erected a more modern and commodious residence for himself and family. He
prospered as the country yielded of its abundant natural resources, and as his sons attained
young manhood, they put their shoulders to the wheel and rendered material assistance in the
accumulation of a competency. He lived to be eighty-six years of age, and was recognized as a
man of great influence among the pioneers of his community. With him from Pennsylvania
came his son James, then a small boy, who served in the war of 1812, and afterward received a
commission as captain in the Ohio state militia. The latter attained the age of seventy-six or
seventy-seven years, and devoted his entire active life to agriculture. Joseph Corwin Newport,
son of James and father of John B. Newport, was born on the farm in Warren county in 18 16.
He became widely known as a successful farmer and horticulturist, and accomplished much
toward developing the pomological resources of Ohio. In young manhood he married Elizabeth
Montgomery, a native of either Pennsylvania or New_ Jersey, who removed to Ohio with her
parents in childhood. Her father, William Montgomery, was a native of Ireland, and when a boy
immigrated to the United States, living for several years in Pennsylvania. Joseph C. Newport
lived to be seventy-five years old, and before his death celebrated his golden wedding in the
midst of many friends and great rejoicing, while on a visit to what is now Kings county, Cal. He is
survived by his wife, who is now eighty-six years old, and who is still active and bright, and able
to do her own work in her Warren county home.
At the age of nineteen John B. Newport left home and began to work on neighboring farms, for
the first three months receiving his room and board in compensation for his services, but after
that $20 a month, until he had enough to pay his way to California in 1874. In Sonoma county,
this state, he rented a farm near Petaluma with his brother, W. J., and after harvesting a fifty-
acre crop of potatoes went to San Francisco and became a fireman on the San Francisco &
North Pacific (now the California Northwestern) Railroad. Later he was given charge of an
engine, running the same until 1878, when he resigned the post. The summer of that year he
helped his brother move to Kings county, arriving here December 8, 1878, and settling three
and a half miles northwest of Hanford on one hundred and sixty acres of land. The cost of the
land was $30 an acre, and they were obliged to run in debt for it, and also for the threshing
machine which they operated throughout the county for several years. From the first they
were successful with their crops, and the threshing machine soon paid for itself, so that both
felt encouraged and hopeful of the future. In the meantime Mr. Newport had left much of the
management of the farm to his brother, while he worked at the carpenter's trade during the
winter time, returning to the farm in summer.
In 1881 J. B. Newport was united in marriage with Emma Tait, a native of Iowa. She died in 1889,
leaving a son, Fred T., now twenty years of age, who has just completed his training at the Mt.
Tamalpais Military Academy. In 1891 Mr. Newport married Louise Horlock, who was born in
London, England. In 1890 he sold one hundred and sixty acres of his property, having in the
meantime purchased an adjoining eighty acres. He received $200 an acre for this tract, a forty
acre tract later brought him $260 an acre, and the balance $200. He continued to operate his
ranch until 1900, and became known as one of the most substantial and successful ranchers of
the county, being one of the first to engage in the cultivation of raisin grapes. A variety of high-
grade stock contributed a handsome yearly income, and blooded horses constituted a source
of constant satisfaction to their owner. It is needless to sav that the ranches were improved
according to the highest tenets of agricultural science, and represented the acme of
independent and luxurious country life.
Mr. Newport's banking experiences began in 1887, when he helped to organize the first bank
of Hanford. In 1891 he became one of the organizers of the Farmers & Merchants Bank, and
has served as a director continuously since, and in July, 1902, was elected president of the
board. He has been prominent in politics for many years, but although a stanch supporter of
the Republican party has never been willing to accept offices within the gift of his fellow
townsmen. When the county was divided in 1893 he came to the rescue with his influence and
money. Many other enterprises have been rendered secure through his timely assistance, and
the citizens who count upon the resources of this unrivaled region to furnish them homes and
sustenance have reason to be grateful for his far-sightedness and public spirit. When the raisin
growers were on the verge of collapse through inability to sell their products, he took an active
part in organizing the Raisin Growers' Association, which secured good prices for their products,
and practically saved the cause. He was active also in securing right of way through the county
for the Santa Fe Railroad Company, giving of his time and money, and urging the advantage to
settlers and shippers.
Yet another resource which has profited by the business ability of Mr. Newport is the oil in the
Coalinga and Sunset districts. He is a stockholder in the Kern Sunset Oil & Development
Company, which has the brightest of prospects, and whose property is now being developed.
For five years he was the president of the Esperanza Oil & Gas Company, which spent $35,000
before oil was produced. The prospects at one time were so doubtful that Mr. Newport and his
brother bought the shares of discontented members, thus holding a very large interest in the
enterprise. When oil was finally discovered the) felt fully repaid for their effort to allay hard
feelings, the first well producing three hundred barrels of oil per day, and another five hundred
barrels per day. They sold their interests at a gratifying advance above the purchase price.
For nearly a quarter of a century Mr. Newport has been an active worker in the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and has extended material assistance in the erection of three different
houses of worship. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons and the Odd Fellows. He is a
man of high moral principle, broad-minded, liberal and possessed of a high public spirit,
exhibiting genuine concern when measures for the promotion of the welfare of the community
are under consideration, and giving generously of his means toward the furtherance of all
worthy and well-considered efforts to elevate the social, moral or industrial status of the whole
people. His name is indissolubly linked with the progress and prosperity of Hanford and Kings
county, and is entitled to a permanent place in the historical literature of the state of California.